Surrender only, Algeria warns hostage-takers

Some Americans still captive

By ADAM NOSSITER AND RICK GLADSTONE THE NEW YORK TIMES

Posted: January 19, 2013 at 3:02 a.m.

Credit: Canal Algerie via AP Television
Rescued hostages hug each other in Ain Amenas, Algeria, in this image taken from television Friday. Algeria’s state news service says half of the 132 foreign hostages have been freed from a gas plant where Islamist militants had held them captive for three days.

Defying the Algerian army’s demands to give up, the band of Islamist militant kidnappers who terrorized a remote Saharan gas-field complex still held at least 10 and possibly dozens of foreign hostages Friday. A senior Algerian government official said there were no talks planned to end the standoff.